My first 7 months of photography (please critique!)

bmoffitt1990 · Jul 29, 2015

Hello all!

This is my first time posting in any photography forum and I am excited to be apart of this community. I just recently got into photography (as the title alludes) and I have quickly fallen in love with it. Outside of sports (when I was younger) I never really had a hobby, so now that I am out of school, I decided to choose something that I thought would excite me and I am glad I got this one right.

I chose photography because I used to spend hours on stumbleupon going through countless portraits and landscape images that would captivate my attention and incite real emotional responses. I could feel the happiness or the pain of a crisp black and white portrait of a human being; a gorgeous rock wall leading to a single, powerful tree in the middle of a meadow made me want to go out and explore all the beauty that the earth has bestowed upon us. I realized that I wanted to take pictures that would create emotional responses within people much like the emotions that I found my self experiencing.

I am putting up some of my own favorite images that I have taken over the past 7 months, and I would like to hear your thoughts about them. Tear them to shreds, praise them, give me pointers on how to improve - whatever you would like! I have thick skin when it comes to these types of things.

My Gear (if anyone is interested)
Nikon D5100
Tokina 12-24mm F/4
Nikon 35mm F/1.8
Nikon 18-140mm F/3.5-5.6
Lee Big Stopper (10 stops)

I edit with LR5

Here are the images (if I put too many in, let me know.)
1. Indian Leap Falls. Norwich, CT

2. Tracks during a snow storm. Guilford, CT

3. Dandelion Sunset. Berkshires, MA.

4. Moon Rising. Thacher State Park, NY.

5. Sunsetting behind the Albany skyline. Albany, NY

6. NY State Education Building. Albany, NY.

7. Column at the NY State Education Building. Albany, NY.

8. Long Exposure at the Empire State Plaza. Albany, NY.
(Wish I aligned the buildings better!)

9. Starry night in a windy reed field. Albany, NY.

10. Praying man at St. Josephs Oratory. Montreal, Canada
(Wish I got this guy in focus)

11. The Notre-Dame Basillica. Montreal, Canada

12. Path to the Duomo. Florence, Italy

13. Steeple. Amsterdam, Netherlands.

14. Random alley in a hostel. Swiss Alps.

15. Mystic Mountain. Swiss Alps.

16. Mystic River. Swiss Alps

17. Zurich, Switzerland.

bmoffitt1990 · Jul 29, 2015

My bad everyone. Just read the forum rules. I am going to work on moving this to the gallery section

Derrel · Jul 29, 2015

Yes, no photographs are allowed in the "Photography Beginners' Forum". Surprised a certain somebody hasn't come along to chastize you for your mistake of thinking that photographs were allowed in the Photography Beginners' Forum section..

bmoffitt1990 · Jul 29, 2015

Derrel said:
Yes, no photographs are allowed in the "Photography Beginners' Forum". Surprised a certain somebody hasn't come along to chastize you for your mistake of thinking that photographs were allowed in the Photography Beginners' Forum section..

Lol. Sensing some sarcasm...?

Also, I am trying to upload images but most of mine are over the 14 MB restriction. Not sure what to do on that front...

Derrel · Jul 29, 2015

Yeah....I think it's ridiculous...like trying to herd cats across the plains, or to ask fleas on a cat to line up in an orderly fashion and to bite the cat in number order...a total loser of a battle.

Most images straight out of a high megapixel DSLR will be quite large, so then must be re-sized or compressed more to make the size limit. There's a file size guideline on TPF, one that says the maximum pixel dimensions must be XXXX pixels on the long size, and I thought the old limit was 2.4 megabytes per file....not sure what software you have, but you might wish to re-size the images to say 1,200 pixels on the long axis.

Designer · Jul 29, 2015

bmoffitt1990 said:
(if I put too many in, let me know.)

My word!

The whole darned portfolio!

Yes, you put in way too many, particularly if you were looking for C&C.

ONE photo per thread is my personal preference for C&C.

Just send a note to one of the moderators, asking to get this thread moved to the general gallery.

Thanks.

tirediron · Jul 29, 2015

bmoffitt1990 said:
Derrel said:

Yes, no photographs are allowed in the "Photography Beginners' Forum". Surprised a certain somebody hasn't come along to chastize you for your mistake of thinking that photographs were allowed in the Photography Beginners' Forum section..

Click to expand...

Lol. Sensing some sarcasm...?

Also, I am trying to upload images but most of mine are over the 14 MB restriction. Not sure what to do on that front...

Moved to the gallery. Just to clarify the rules for everyone: It's not a case of "NO" photos being allowed in the Beginner's Forum, rather it was decided that all images for critique belong in the galleries. It is perfectly acceptable to post images in the Beginner Forum if they relate to a beginning question, such as, "What caused this effect in my image?" but in order for genuine questions not to get "lost" we felt that it was better to separate critique and questions.

Designer · Jul 29, 2015

Way too many for a detailed critique, but in general, I will say that I did not see any that stood out from the pack. Keep on shooting!

BrickHouse · Jul 29, 2015

There is some wonderful stuff mixed in here! I really like 2, 3, 15, and 16.

Derrel · Jul 29, 2015

tirediron said:
Just to clarify the rules for everyone: It's not a case of "NO" photos being allowed in the Beginner's Forum, rather it was decided that all images for critique belong in the galleries. It is perfectly acceptable to post images in the Beginner Forum if they relate to a beginning question, such as, "What caused this effect in my image?" but in order for genuine questions not to get "lost" we felt that it was better to separate critique and questions.

So, JUST TO CLARIFY, you're walking back the edict that was handed down like, two days ago, and announcing the new, more sane policy here, at this time. Good to know that saner heads have prevailed. I guess all that cat herding was worth it, as the lesson was eventually assimilated and put in to some type of practice.Beginners forum - Moderator Notice Photography Forum

Maybe the new policy you just announced five minutes ago can be reflected in an UPDATED sticky in the beginner's forum? Beginners forum - Moderator Notice Photography Forum

SnappingShark · Jul 29, 2015

Rules aside - as they say in photography, rules are supposed to be broken ... I love you images. But then, I am no expert - just a lover of photographs

Forkie · Jul 30, 2015

Too many for C&C, but it looks like you found the right hobby! Great stuff!

Overread · Jul 30, 2015

Moffitt - landscapes are not my thing (I take a few but not many) so I'm not as well versed with methods, tricks and critical thinking on the subject. . That said I think you've got off to a fantastic start. You've got an "eye" for this and it seems also a nice degree of breadth in your interest; ergo you're not stringing along one trick over and over again with what you've shown here.

2 5 7 8
Really stand out to me and look great.

12 and 13 are les clear and 12 looks a bit more hectic and random; its bordering on being a snapshot. I think its because of the people in the foreground that you've cut-up with the frame. Granted in such a busy scene its hard to avoid doing that; but because there are 3 people forming a core of the middle of the lower part I think it distracts and makes it feel more like a grabshot.

13 improves on this; but something just doesn't feel "good" enough to really make it stand out. It's too common/familiar to normal vision of the scene. Least ways I don't find it artistic so much as a documentary style (and there's nothing wrong in that of course).

Derrel this isn't the place - you've been here long enough to know to use the feedback section for such discussions rather than hijacking another users thread.
For the record the "policy" that you say was imposed 2 days ago was imposed last year; the sticky is a reminder of those rules posted in January and only recently appeared again because it was bumped. In addition the policy as Tired has outlined is the policy we've used ever since we decided to not allow gallery style and critique photo posts in the Beginners section - and that rule was imposed because Beginners was being overloaded as a second and threads were cycling so fast many would hardly get a day on the first page of threads before they were lost (unless you'd like to return to a time when every other complaining post was "oh you can't get any attention unless you post in beginners). We've generally not pushed out technical questions with photos in the beginners section; although there is some leeway as to what counts as technical and what counts as gallery style- so there is some room for interpretation in that.

waday · Jul 30, 2015

Nice shots! My favorites are 2, 5, 8, 9, and 17.

IMO, some could use different processing (3, 6, 7, 11). And, sorry to be harsh, but some look like ordinary snapshots (12, 13, 14, 15, 16).